Comfort while Enduring

Comfort while Enduring

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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. Let me be seated. It’s kind of hard to miss the fact that we are in the end times. Consider the earthquakes that have occurred and the tsunamis. Consider the huge storms, typhoons, and tornadoes. Consider also the wars and rumors of wars—not just the obvious ones like in Syria and Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan—but other skirmishes elsewhere still going on, even though it may not be reported by major news networks.

We know we are in the end times, but we do not know when that day or that hour will be when our Lord Jesus returns with glory, but we know that it will be soon. Whether we are alive when he returns or not, all of us will have a judgment day. If we die before that day, our death will be our judgment day. If we’re still alive when Jesus returns, that day will be our judgment day. So either way, we all will have a judgment day.

The next three Sundays, this Sunday and the next two, we will be talking about these end times and judgment day. Very applicable in this day and in this age. But the hardest thing about that day, our own death even, is we don’t know when it’s going to come. That leads to temptation to say, you know what? Either we resign ourselves and say, “Ah, it ain’t going to happen for a long time,” and we stop. Waiting, enduring, and hoping, and we give in. That’s typical because it’s hard to wait.

Waiting implies a lot of things when you think about it. Waiting implies that repentance isn’t just one time for one sin that maybe you’ve thought of or I’ve thought of. Waiting or enduring is ongoing repentance, moment by moment, day by day. For we know not when our day will end. Waiting or enduring also implies that fidelity isn’t just one time for one situation. It implies fidelity to be ongoing. Enduring and waiting implies that prayer isn’t just when we feel it, but prayer is ongoing and enduring.

Interesting thing about waiting: we don’t do it too well, do we? We spend time, and our blessed kindergarten teachers and preschool teachers teach the kids to wait and stand in line. And it’s like we never did learn that because we still gripe and complain if the line at the checkout is too long, if the computer’s not fast enough, if the phone doesn’t bring it up quick enough. Waiting is hard for us, very hard.

But God, in his great mercy towards you, about which those heavenly voices of our children sang, God brings comfort while we are enduring. And he promises this comfort. We depend upon it. So our enduring isn’t comfortless by no means. Our enduring and our waiting is comfort-filled. And in the Gospel reading, he’s very clear about this comfort that he brings to you and to me, giving us that comfort while we wait and endure.

The hardest thing in my life that I have ever done—and it probably won’t be the last, it might happen again someday, maybe not underneath those circumstances, but it may be something else, maybe a health issue—but the hardest thing I ever had to do was wait an entire year to be for my bride and my family. That was hard. It got very wearisome. It got very old. It left a bad taste in one’s mouth when I was overseas in Iraq. But I knew, and the comfort was there both for me and my bride. Whether I returned alive or not, or whether she died before I returned or not, I knew, and she knew, that we would see one another again in the resurrection. That we knew. That was our comfort while we were apart.

And in those cases and instances, that is the greatest comfort we could ever imagine. It is not empty or vacuous. It is substantive and it feeds your soul. This is the kind of comfort that your Lord Jesus brings to you today.

Now, in the text, there are two groups of people that Jesus is speaking to. One of them is called the Sadducees, and the other, the text refers to them as the scribes. That’s the same thing as saying the Pharisees. So in essence, there are two groups of Judaism that Jesus is speaking to: the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

Now, the Sadducees… The Pharisees are what was considered by the Jewish culture as the liberal Jews. They only believe in the first five books of Moses, which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They did not believe in the rest of the Old Testament whatsoever. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. That’s what the text even says. And the other thing that they don’t believe in is they don’t believe in angels.

Now, the Pharisees were considered the conservative side of the house. They did believe in all of the Old Testament, being from God. They also did believe, though, in the resurrection, unlike their Sadducee brothers. And they did believe in angels, unlike their Sadducee brothers. So those are the two groups unto whom Jesus is speaking. And as we go along, you’ll see why that’s so important to keep those two in mind.

The Sadducees are exposed in our text from the get-go. There came to Jesus some Sadducees who said they deny that there is a resurrection. Now, the original Greek here says it much stronger. It’s not just that they denied the resurrection. They ardently, vigorously, vociferously denied the resurrection. Man, talk about dead hope. Dead hope. Without the resurrection, this is all there is to life, isn’t it? Ish. Who wants it?

So if they deny the resurrection, why is it that they ask a question regarding the resurrection? Did you notice that? They ask this question about this make-believe man who was married to this make-believe woman. They didn’t have a son. He died, so the brother owes to that woman and to his brother an heir to his property and so on. That brother dies and so on. She goes through all seven brothers. They all die. There is no heir left.

And then they have the gall to say this to Jesus, even though they don’t believe in the resurrection, mind you. They say, “Are you for real?” These people. It seems ridiculous to you and to me, such a question, when at the very beginning, it’s already very clear that they don’t even believe in it. All they wanted to do was to lead people away from Jesus. That’s all they wanted to do.

Now, to you and to me, this question seems ridiculous. But it’s interesting, isn’t it? The ridiculousness of questions that we ask ourselves when it doesn’t involve our children or our siblings or our family or our husband or our wife. Why we consider all those questions ridiculous. Let it involve our siblings, our husband, our wife, our children. And then all of a sudden, we think differently.

So, for example… A young woman and a young man, promised to get married, but they’re not married yet. And they think in their minds, “You know what? We’re going to get married, so why do we not just enjoy each other sexually before we get married? Because we’re going to get married anyway.” What do the mom and dad say? “Oh, you know, that’s what they all do nowadays. Oh, it doesn’t matter.”

Isn’t it interesting? We can be so ardently against it when it’s not our own flesh and blood, but let it be our flesh and blood, and then it’s all of a sudden a different story. A young man and a young woman going to school become pregnant. Both are in school. They’ve got to finish their school. They’ve got to get their education. And a choice is made by these two that ends the life of a third. Let it be someone else’s child; we’re ardently against it. Let it be our own child? Hmm.

So while we may say, “You Sadducees are ridiculous for asking such questions,” let it be reminded to you and to me that when the question is asked of us, and our family is involved or someone we love dearly is involved, we are so willing to tell God to bend it, bow it, twist it, somehow, someway, because it doesn’t apply to my family; it doesn’t apply to me. So lest we be too judgmental of the Sadducees… we have to realize that Satan’s desire is to lead us into misbelief. Satan’s desire is to lead us into despair of God’s grace and mercy. Satan’s desire is to mislead us into other great shame and vice, just as Satan was leading these Sadducees by the nose.

Jesus’ response doesn’t even deal with the Sadducees’ questions, for their hypocrisy was seen clearly by Jesus. He doesn’t go, “Well, now, given the case that…” and tries to wax eloquent about the situation; it has no relevance to whether there is a resurrection or not. What matters is the resurrection, and that is about which he speaks. For he says very clearly, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.” That means marriage is a normal part of this life that we live. It is there to be the expression of our sexuality. It is there to be the procreation of children and the gift that they are. It is there to be the place where mother and father raise that child in the faith and give them Jesus.

But after the resurrection, there is no need for marriage anymore. We’ll be in heaven. So that’s why he says, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age… and to the resurrection from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

And here’s some comfort: for they cannot die anymore. Now, at first thought, you would think, “Boy, Jesus is really just socking it to those Sadducees.” No, he’s really not. Jesus is trying to apply balm to the sucking chest wound of the Sadducees, and they say to Jesus in their impenitence, “No need for a doctor here. I got it.” Jesus is trying to give them a bit of honey in their deprived and destitute case, and a little bit of water and wine to nourish them, and they say, “No, I got it. I don’t need it.”

He’s trying to love them, and they’re refusing his love. He’s trying to give them hope in this hopeless world, and they’re walking away from him because he doesn’t fit their paradigm. How sad for those Sadducees. He not only says they cannot die anymore; he gets stronger. They’re equal to angels. They’re sons of God—just like at our baptism where God calls us his own children. They’re not only sons of God and daughters of God; they’re also sons of the resurrection.

Right? Because of our being baptized into Christ, we’re baptized into Christ’s death and into his resurrection. Therefore, we are sons and daughters of God and sons and daughters of the resurrection. He’s telling them more hope so that they don’t grow weary and become, in their case, complete apostate from the hope of the resurrection. As if it’s gobbledygook and fairy tales. How sad.

How sad, but he doesn’t stop there. Like in a game of spades, when that queen of spades pulls out, you better be able to get underneath it, or you got it for your points. So Jesus throws out that card and says, “But that the dead are raised? That’s not me telling you this. That’s in the Old Testament—and not just the Old Testament; that’s in the book of Exodus that we read this morning.”

Even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, the one that we read, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Remember? The Lord said, “I am the God of your father.” He did not say, “I was the God of your father.” He said, “I am the God of Abraham.” The Lord does not say, “I was the God of Abraham.” He says, “I am the God of Jacob and Isaac.” He does not say, “I was the God of Jacob or I was the God of Isaac.” It’s present tense now. It’s not past.

God is the God of the living, not of the dead. Last Sunday, when we celebrated All Saints Day, we were reminded of the seven or so names that a Lutheran Christian sermon shared. Because God has proclaimed to you this day, as you wait for that reunion, God is the God of the living, not of the dead. There will be a resurrection. There will be life eternal, and God promises it here.

Here. Here is comfort while we are enduring. And right up here, at this altar, my daddy’s been gone for nine years. I commune with him every Sunday because he’s in heaven. My niece, who’s been dead for 30 years, she died at six years old; I commune with her at that rail. My grandparents, I commune with them at that rail. For at that rail is where heaven and earth come together. There is where the church is visible, as visible as it can be. Those who have preceded us in the faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, your loved ones and my loved ones, as well as those who are presently believing—there is revelation. Because God is the God of the living. He’s not the God of the dead.

God is the God of the resurrection of all flesh, not the God of dead, worm-eaten, crusty bones and flesh in the grave. This is hope, brothers and sisters. This is sure and certain hope. Now, it is not hope like this. It is not hope like this. “I hope that the University of Kansas Jayhawk football team will win the national title.” That ain’t happening, brothers and sisters. You know that and I know that.

Notice I didn’t talk about basketball yet. But I can tell you right now that ain’t happening. That’s not a sure hope and that’s not a certain hope. A sure and certain hope is we will be raised from the dead. We will see our loved ones who have died in Christ. We do commune with them here at this altar when we gather for Christ’s flesh and blood with the bread and the wine. That’s a sure and certain hope.

That’s what sustained me during my years away from my family and my bride. That’s what’s going to sustain us when we die, whether I die or she dies or our children or grandchildren die before us— that’s what sustains us. That’s what has sustained you as you still mourn in the pain and the memory of your loved ones who have died in Christ. And that will be your hope, your sure hope, and your certain hope as we endure these last days.

In the name of him who called you to be a son and daughter of God, a son and daughter of the resurrection, the God of the living, Jesus himself. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and keep your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.